"... voice hearing has a survival strategy. A sane reaction to insane circumstances... complex and meaningful experience... valuing voices as full citizens..."

Eleanor Longden speaks of a social movement 20 years in the making- Intervoice- seeking value in the messages behind the voices.

My mother, a schizophrenic, committed suicide when she was 36. If I apply Longden's ideas to my mother's situation, then the voices that told her to take over 200 pills, were not trying to kill her. They were trying to warn her of her safety.

She was not safe. She remarried a man with similar mental issues- a man, no not a man... a weasel, whom, I learned too late, beat her. So yes- her voices were warning her, telling her to get the fuck out of there and find safety. With her belongings was an updated passport. She was ready to go back to Taiwan. To family.

This is where it gets interesting.

My mother had called my grandmother the day before her death. She wasn't home and ended up leaving a message with my aunt M- who forgot to give the message to my grandmother. I don't know why she told me. Maybe Aunt M felt guilty and needed to get it off her chest. But my mother had reached out for help from my grandmother. My Grandma. So my mother, my mommy, did what she was suppose to do and she still ended up in pain, killing herself.

So while Longden and Intervoice (The International Hearing Voices Network) say to work with your voices by setting boundaries and reassuring them that you are listening to the meaning behind them, I'd say that there is a force much more sinister than voices- the force of man and his ability to judge and hurt.

Since my mother was abused by her second husband, Michael Shriber in San Antonio, Texas, he is the one to blame. His fist was more threatening than the voices. His fist is what pushed her to kill herself. His fist needs to be held accountable for her death. Period.

Thanks Intervoice. But you cannot help. Unless.... you are willing to develop support material and groups for survivors of "hearing voices" abled who commit suicide.